Girl, 19, gets body-shamed at church: 'Fat girls don't wear shorts'

A 19-year-old girl from Swansboro, N.C. was fat-shamed at church on Sunday, when a congregation leader followed her to the bathroom and told her, “Fat girls don’t wear shorts.”

The teen, who goes by Jenna on Twitter, took to her social media to share a video that she captured when a woman named Bonnie Sue confronted her in the bathroom of Swansboro United Methodist Church. When the clip starts, Sue is seemingly referring to another churchgoer when she says, “She’s a chubby girl. She’s got a dress on that’s appropriate.”

“I’m honestly shocked and upset that this happened at church,” she wrote. “I should feel accepted and loved and now I don’t want to go back to that church.”

The pastor of Swansboro United Methodist Church, G. Kevin Baker, provided Yahoo Lifestyle with a statement that was sent to the community on Tuesday. Jenna also added the letter as an update to her thread.

Something I did not say originally is why I went to the bathroom. I currently have a family member in the hospital with a brain aneurysm and I was checking to see if there were any updates, she caught me a very vulnerable time

“It has come to our attention that great harm has been done in an incident that occurred this past Sunday where a faithful and very gifted young lady and worship leader was body shaming for her appearance,” the statement reads. “We are shocked and saddened by this act. The Church is supposed to be a place of safety, love and acceptance.”

According to Jenna’s thread, the pastor told her that Sue won’t be working in any sort of committee or in any leadership role at the church ever again. In an email to Yahoo Lifestyle, Baker also noted that Sue and is a church member and not an employee.

Beyond the pastor’s support, however, Jenna has received an outpouring of love from thousands of Twitter users — including actress and body positive activist Jameela Jamil.

So horrified to watch what you were put through. You don’t deserve that. You look fucking brilliant in those shorts. That woman is an arsehole. Well done for fighting back. I didn’t have the courage to do that when I was younger. You’re so inspiring. Sending you love.

This is the daily harassment people receive over their size. Even at the hands of people old enough to know better. Even in sacred places. Even in their own doctor’s practices. Our hypernormalization of policing and ridiculing fat bodies is what leads to this brazen bullying. https://twitter.com/roo_jenna/status/1145418354498461698 …

“Even at the hands of people old enough to know better. Even in sacred places. Even in their own doctor’s practices,” she wrote. “Our hypernormalization of policing and ridiculing fat bodies is what leads to this brazen bullying.”